


One Only

by tigs



Category: Bandom, Highlander: The Series, Panic At The Disco
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-20
Updated: 2008-05-20
Packaged: 2017-11-12 13:58:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/491814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigs/pseuds/tigs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And the thing is, Spencer's brain hasn't actually made the next logical leap by the time Brendon nods. By the time Brendon smiles weakly and says, "Yeah, well. There can be only one."</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Only

**Author's Note:**

> So yesterday, when I decided I wanted Bandom boys set in the Highlander universe no one discouraged me.

Spencer doesn't mean to follow Brendon.

He just.

You know.

*

Okay, so there's this guy hanging around after the show, right? And he's standing at the back of the crowd outside the venue, hovering like the kids who want autographs, except, well, a) he's not a kid, and b) he really, really doesn't fit in. Not that their fans are fucking, like, clones or anything, but this guy? He has on a leather trench coat, a Hawaiian shirt, *sunglasses*, even though it's, like, 11:30 at night, and okay, even in the dark Spencer can see his scar: temple to throat, deep and puckered, bruised against the paleness of his skin.

Still, Spencer's not sure he would have noticed him, because it's not like there aren't parents in the crowd, not like there aren't other adults there. Spencer would think that he's just another one, except that, well, *Brendon* notices him, and not just in a *hey, that guy's actually sort of creepy* way. He's signing some girl's neck, marker sliding over skin, when he looks up suddenly, shivers. Then, when Spencer looks over to see what his deal is, he's looking right at the guy. He keeps right on looking until the girl in front of him starts to squirm, laughing, saying that the marker's tickling. Spencer watches Brendon's attention snap back to the girl, listens to him laugh—high pitched, reedy, and really fucking fake—sees him finish signing her neck with a flourish, the tail of the 'e' stretching down towards her shoulder.

Then, even though they still have, like, 20 kids huddled in front of them, Brendon looks over his shoulder at Zack for a moment, longer, then nods and caps his pen and says, "Fuck. I—I totally left something in the dressing room, guys, I've got to—I'll catch up with you in a few, okay?"

He doesn't wait for anyone to respond before he's picking up the guitar case he's taken to keeping around at all times—just in case inspiration strikes, or so he says, even if Spencer's never seen him actually pull the guitar out—and heads back in the direction they came from, not 15 minutes before. Zack's only a few steps behind, leaving Spencer and everyone else in the care of the rest of the security team, and then they're both gone.

The thing is: when Spencer looks back in the direction of Scar Guy™, he's gone. Like he was never there. And that's just. Well, that's what prompts Spencer to cap his own pen, to look over at Jon and say, "I'll meet you guys on the bus, okay?"

Security Guy #2 tries to come with him, but Spencer says, "I'll be right back, okay?"

Then, well, he follows Brendon.

*

Brendon, however, is not in the dressing room.

He's not on the stage and not in any of the hallways between the dressing room and the stage.

The venue is pretty much empty by this time, though, so when Spencer hears voices beyond the stage, he follows them: through the building, down hallways, finally to a door that leads out the other side. It's metal, thick looking, but through it Spencer can hear a deep voice, another quieter one, *Brendon's*, and then the sound of, like, metal hitting metal? Something.

So Spencer opens the door. Opens it a foot, maybe, before it hits something solid, something that says 'oof' and sounds like Zack, and *is* Zack, since in the next moment, Zack is standing in front of the door, between Spencer and the outside. He moves fast, seems to stand up as tall as he's able, like he can completely block the alleyway from Spencer's view, but he's too late, because Spencer's already seen: Brendon and Scar Guy moving across his line of sight, battling back and forth with fucking swords, what the *fuck*.

Scar Guy is seriously, like, two feet taller than Brendon is, and he's laughing at Brendon, saying things like, "I've been *waiting* for this day," and "It's cruel, almost, to take one so young," and their swords keep *clanging* because they keep *hitting* at each other, and Zack is just *standing there*.

"What the fuck!" Spencer says, trying to push past Zack to get to Brendon, to *help* him, god dammit, but Zack grabs him, holds him tight, keeps him away. He's moved enough that Spencer can see beyond him now, can see how Brendon raises his sword to stop a downward stroke that would have, like, sliced him in half, what the fucking *fuck*, and then counters with one of his own, slicing into Scar Guy's arm.

"Feisty, aren't you?" Scar Guy says. "It's refreshing, to see one with so much life. The last head I took belonged to a man who'd taken up farming 200 years ago. He hadn't touched a sword since."

"I've touched a sword," Brendon says, and Spencer can feel Zack tense behind him and he doesn't know why they aren't *doing* anything, and then Scar Guy brings his sword up again, except this time, Brendon's not raising his own to block it and he's not going to be able to stop Scar Guy, Spencer knows he's not, except as Scar Guy brings his sword down, Brendon spears his up, piercing the guy's ribs, and the guy staggers backwards, his sword falling from suddenly loose hands.

"You can't kill me this way," Scar Guy gasps, and Brendon says, "I know." He reaches down to pick up Scar Guy's sword, and as Scar Guy falls to his knees, already trying to wrench Brendon's sword from his abdomen, Brendon swings. Straight from the shoulders this time, a clean arc.

And then he fucking cuts off Scar Guy's head.

What Spencer would like now is: to see Brendon looking shocked at what he's just done, like this wasn't just a regular part of everyday life. Possibly ill, like Spencer imagines one should feel after cutting off some guy's fucking head. He would like Brendon to move, get out of here before the cops come and find him with a bloody sword in his hand, what the fuck.

He would like *Zack* to be acting like this isn't something he's seen before.

Brendon just stands there, though, staring at the body, like he's waiting for something, and *now* Zack is wrestling with Spencer, trying to pull him back into the theater, but Spencer starts fighting him again, because they should be getting to Brendon, getting him out of here, getting them *all* out of here. But then he stops, because Scar Guy's body? Just shot a bolt of lightening at Brendon, and all Spencer can think is: what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck. Then there's another bolt, another, another, and Brendon's just.

He's just *standing* there, *taking* it, convulsing with it, head thrown back, oh my god, and it goes on and on and Spencer thinks that Brendon *can't* still be alive, not after all of this. Then it stops and Brendon falls to his knees before pushing himself back upwards with his sword, and then he looks right at Spencer.

And this is what Spencer can't believe: Brendon looks scared. Not like he did while that fucking lunatic was coming after him with a sword. Not like he should have when he was absorbing fucking *lightening*.

No, he looks scared *now*. *Now*, when he's faced with *Spencer*. He says, "Spence, I—"

Spencer doesn't realize that Zack has actually let go of him until hears the sound of a cell phone being dialed.

"Yeah," Zack says. "I'm going to need a cleanup at the corner of 13th and Amedon. Pronto." Then he looks at Brendon and Spencer and says, "Back to the bus. Now."

"Spence," Brendon says again, but Spencer takes a step backwards, because Brendon's still holding a *sword*, wet with someone else's *blood*, and *Jesus*, what is he supposed to do now?

"It's not what it looks like," Brendon says, and he sounds weak, shaky. He looks it, too, because he's literally using Scar Guy's sword like a cane, and Spencer says, "Not what it looks like? Not what it fucking looks like? Jesus *fuck*, Brendon, I just watched you cut some guy's fucking head off—"

He might say more, except Zack's hand comes down heavy on his shoulder as he says, "Bus. Now. We have to go *now*."

He keeps a hand on Spencer's shoulder, like he thinks Spencer might try to bolt—which, okay, actually sounds like it wouldn't be that bad of an idea—and so Spencer is forced to watch as Brendon pulls his own sword out of Scar Guy's body, as he wipes it on the clean part of the man's Hawaiian shirt. As he sticks it back in that fucking guitar case (oh my god) and then he's following behind Zack and Spencer as they walk down the alleyway out to the street and back in the direction of the bus.

Zack keeps a hold of Spencer until all three of them are on the bus, and then he stands at the front, blocking Spencer's exit, and Spencer would glare at him, except he finds himself face-to-face with Ryan and Jon, who are sitting in the kitchenette, drinking beers and playing a game of double solitaire.

"You guys get what you forgot?" Ryan asks.

Brendon says, "Yeah. Yeah. It was right where I left it, simple as that, you know?" and Spencer thinks he should say something to Jon and Ryan about what he saw, but then Jon's saying, "Dudes, you missed the light show. There was, like, a little mini storm while you were gone. Like, a minute's worth of lightening and shit. It was pretty weird, right above the venue and all."

And Spencer thinks, a minute? It was only a minute? It felt like hours, days, *years*.

Then Brendon puts his hand on Spencer's shoulder, flinches when Spencer jerks away, but keeps his voice light when he says, "Come play Guitar Hero with me, Spencer Smith. I'll even let you almost win."

Spencer wants to say no, wants to go to bed, wants to get off the fucking bus and drag Jon and Ryan with him, get the hell away from here, but when he turns to look over his shoulder at Zack—and why he still trusts Zack, he doesn't know, but he does—Zack nods and so he says, "Yeah, okay. Yeah."

He leads the way.

Brendon shuts the door to the lounge behind them, leans back against it, setting his guitar case down at his feet.

"It wasn't what it looked like," Brendon says, and he's looking at the ground, hanging his head. Sounding defeated in a way that Spencer's never heard him sound before. "Well, okay, it was what it looked like, but if I hadn't taken his head, he would have taken mine. And I'm really sort of attached to my head, you know?"

Spencer nods, because he's not quite sure what else to do.

"It's the Game," Brendon says.

And that, *that* is too much. "Game!" Spencer says. "Brendon, you fucking— You—"

"I'm immortal," Brendon says, interrupting him, and Spencer snaps his mouth shut. He's standing in the middle of the lounge, but he takes a step backwards, because Brendon's not sane. He fucking can't be, and Spencer's stuck in the lounge with him, Zack *sent* Spencer back to the lounge with him, Zack is in on it, oh my god.

"I can prove it," Brendon says. "Well, sort of. I can do the whole proving it if you want, but dying is sort of painful, so if you'll believe the quick and dirty demonstration, I'd really appreciate it." With that, he opens up his guitar case (oh, god) and pulls out the sword—still tinted with blood—and very deliberately runs the palm of his hand across the edge of the blade.

Spencer's first reaction *still* is to step forward, to pull Brendon's hand away, to stop him from hurting himself, but then Brendon's holding his hand up for Spencer to see, blood dripping down towards his wrist, and as Spencer watches he sees blue sparks dancing across Brendon's skin, knitting the slice back together, and Spencer's legs, well, suddenly he's sitting on the floor, not quite sure how he got there.

"You—" he starts.

"I'm an immortal," Brendon says, sitting down, too, inching closer to Spencer. "I. Well, okay, I found out I was one—well, that's actually a long story for another time—but the short version is, I can't die, not unless someone cuts off my head, and there's a whole lot of people out there that want to do that, and that's the Game. So, kill or be killed. And if you do the killing, you get the other person's quickening, the life force of every immortal who they've killed, and Zack's my watcher, because every Immortal has one, and—"

"And that's the Game?" Spencer interrupts, going back a step because he can only deal with one thing at a time. Even if there are other things he should be asking because what Brendon's saying is fucking *insane*, but at the same time, no more crazy than *blue lightening*, *men coming after Brendon with swords*, and Brendon sitting small and serious in front of him, so unlike his normal self that Spencer can't help but believe, just a little. So: "The goal is, what, to chop off people's heads and collect as many of these quickenings as you can?"

And the thing is, his brain hasn't actually made the next logical leap by the time Brendon nods. By the time Brendon smiles weakly and says, "Yeah, well. There can be only one."

Then Spencer blinks. He wants to say 'Jesus' and 'what the fuck' and 'you can't be serious', but Brendon is, totally, and he doesn't notice Brendon crawling across the floor towards him, but this time when Brendon reaches out to touch him, he doesn't flinch away. Instead he pulls Brendon into a hug and says, "Brendon, Jesus. Brendon."

Brendon says, "Yeah. Yeah. I know." Then he pulls back and grins, still too weak for Spencer's comfort, but in a slightly more Brendon-ish way, and says, "But look on the bright side. I have no plans to lose my head anytime soon."

Again, there are other things that Spencer should be asking for: explanations, more proof, logic and reason. What he says is, "You'd better not."


End file.
